Process of making flocked fabric



Oct. 2, 1934.

O. H. FORSDALE PROCESS OF MAKING FLOCKED FABRIC Filed March 10. 1932 INVENTOR. 607/? b. Fawn/115 ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 2, 1934 v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Oscar Herbert Forsdale, Fall River, Mass, assignor to United Merchants and Manufacturers, Inc., New York, N. Y.', a corporation of New York Application March 10, 1932, Serial No. 598,044

4 Claims.

My invention relates to flocked fabrics and a process of producing by a single printing opera- 4 tion a fabric of that type with multi-colored flocks thereon.

5 In the flocking process the designs or patterns of the flock, that is the shape, size and relative arrangement of the flocks on the fabric, is controlled and determined by a stencil'through openings in which an adhesive or varnish is forced m on to the fabric.

the fabric and, of course, accumulates on and adheres to the spots covered by the adhesive, and after a suitable drying period the material is ready for the trade.

5 Prior to my invention ,it has been possible to produce flocked fabric wherein the fabric was of different color than the flocks thereon, but only with flocks of the same color. For instance, the flocks could be dyed before applied to the fabric, or the adhesive .colored with pigment to impart a color to the flocks, and white flocks could be applied to colored fabric.

When dyed flock is applied to the fabric the finished fabric is spotted only with flocks of one color as the application of flocks of different colors in predetermined groups cannot be controlled. The same is true when the adhesive has incorporated therein a pigment to impart color to the flocks because the application of different colored adhesives cannot be controlled.

The principal object of my invention is to produce a flocked fabric, having thereon different colored flocks presenting a novel and attractive effect; and to produce such fabric by a process including a single adhesive applying operation such as mentioned above, a single flock applying operation such as mentioned above, and a single printing operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide by the above process a fabric having flocks, some or all of which are of different colors.

In the practice of the invention it is possible to use flocks of various materials such as silk, cotton, rayon, and wool, and to apply the flocks to various materials and to apply the flocks to the fabric either by stencil machines or roll printing machines or any other means now in use or hereafter devised.

The accompanying drawing is merely illustrative, and the apparatus shown diagrammatically therein, and the fabrics illustrated therein are to be considered only in connection with the following description to obtain a clear understandmg of the invention, as various effects and pat- The flock is then dusted on to terns may be obtained and different types of apparatus used as hereinafterpointed out.

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of apparatus for imparting colors to the flocks by a single printing operation and showing a strip of fabric in process of printing;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of a piece of cloth illustrating designs formed thereon with the flocks in the respective figures of varying colors;

Fig. 3 is a view of a swatch of flocked fabric showing a single large flock of varying colors; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view through a fragment of flocked fabric showing a single flock embodying characteristics effected by my invention.

Before entering into a detailed description of the drawing, I would explain that the flock, which is very finely cut or ground textile fibres, is treated or saturated with suitable chemicals and dye stuff bases known as naphthols to accomplish the purposes of my invention. It is possible to treat material from which the flock is made with the naphthols before it is made into flock and from the following description it is to be understood that the flock described may be produced either by saturating the ground fibres or by saturating the cloth and then making it into fibres. In either event, the flock is dried and then applied to the fabric by any suitable means to cause the flock to adhere to the spots 5 or designs formed on the fabric with adhesive or varnish when the fabric is stenciled or printed. The fabric, with my specially treated flock adhering to its surfaces, is dried in the regular manner and after drying, is ready for the step whereby the various colors are developed.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawing, the numeral 5 designates a strip of fabric to which my specially treated flocks have been applied. The strip of fabric is rolled and the roll mounted on a spindle 5 between supports 6 and passes partially around cylinder '7 under design printing rollers and under the guide roller 8 to drying apparatus, not shown. Assume that the printing rollers A, B, C, and D have formed thereon, embossed designs corresponding to the designs or figuresA, B, C, and D, respectively, shown on the swatch of fabric in Fig. 2, which designs or figures are formed by pastes contained in the receptacles 9, 10, 11, and 12, which is fed to the printing rollers A, B, C, and D for printing on the fabric, by the feed rollers 13 which dip into the paste in the receptacle. This process of printing is in general use.

I have discovered that when the flock is treated 11 with naphthols in the manner above specified and applied to the fabric and when fast color salts such, for example, as fast blue salt B-Color Index 499 or fast scarlet salt R-Color Index 118 are incorporated in the printing paste which is fed to the'printing rolls, the flocks ontacted by the design forming projections on thl. printing rollers have imparted thereto a color according to the reaction which takes place between the naphthol in the flock and the particular color salt in the paste. For instance, in Fig. 2, the flocks on the design A are shown as being white because when the design forming projections on the roller A contacted those flocks the paste on the design forming projections did not have incorporated therein a fast color 1salt. However, the flocks on the figure C are lined to indicate that they are red, such color having been imparted to the flocks because the printing paste in the receptacle 11 had incorporated therein, fast scarlet salt R, and when thissalt mixed with the naphthol AS in the flocks on the areas contacted by the projections on the roller C,.the chemical reaction produced the color red. Similarly, the flocks in the figure B were made purple and the flocks in the design orv figure D were made blue because the paste in the receptacles 10 and 12 respectively had incorporated therein, fast color salts which reacted with the naphthol AS in the flocks contacted by the projections on the rollers B and D respectively to impart the colors purple and blue to those particular flocks.

In actual practice, I have been'able to produce in one printing'operation when the flocks on a strip of fabric had been treated with naphthol AS and. a plurality of printing rollers were supplied with printing paste having different fast color salts the colors red, orange, black, blue, violet, pink, garnet, and intermediate shades. Such a flocked fabric is a distinct novelty and a great improvement over the single colored flocked fabrics which only were possible prior to my invention. The number of colors is controlled by the number of rollers and the number of pastes which have incorporated therein the fast color salts, so that the efiects and designs can be varied at will and the relative positions of the groups of different colored flocks is readily controlled and effected under a single printing operation.

Referring to Fig. 3, it will be noted that the large single flock 14 is colored red, white, and blue. This is accomplished by forming on one printing roller a raised portion tocontact the area which is red and feeding that roller with a paste having incorporated therein fast scarlet salt R and feeding to the roller which contacts the white area a paste with no fast color salt therein, and to the roller which contacts the blue area a fast color salt which will react with the naphthol in the flock to produce the color blue. This is merely illustrative and it will be readily understood that the shape and size of the flocks and the number of colors on the individual flocks can be varied.

Another feature of the invention residesin the fact that one sideof the fabric can have produced thereon multi-colored flocks while the other surface of the fabric will have thereon only white flocks. This is illustrated in Fig. 4, where the flock 15 is formed on both'sides of the fabric and the portion of theflock on the top of the fabric is red because of contact with a fast scarlet salt R on a roller, while the portion of the flock on the other side of the fabric is white, due to theiact that it contacted the cylinder 7 and the color salt did not pentrate through the adhesive. It will be understood that this result can be obtained regardless of the number ofdifferent colors imparted to the upper portion of the flocks.

I claim;

1. The process of producing a flocked fabric having a plurality of flocks of different colors, comprising forming on the fabric a plurality of flocks with chemically treated flock, then subjecting the fabric and flocks thereon to the action of a plurality of printing elements, and simultaneously'supplying to the printing surfaces of the printing elements a chemical which will react with the chemical in the flock to impart to the flocks contrasting colors. 7

2. The process of producing flocked fabrics having thereon a plurality of flocks with flocks in predetermined areas on the fabric of contrasting colors, comprising treating the flock with naphthol, applying the flock thus treated to the fabric, subjecting the fabric with the flock thus treated thereon simultaneouslyto the action of a plurality of printing elements at predetermined areas on the fabric, and supplying to the printing surface of each of the printing elements a different chemical to react with the naphthol in the flock to impart different colors to the flocks contacted by the respective elements at said areas.

3. The process of producing flocked fabrics having thereon a plurality of flocks with the flocks in predetermined areas on the fabric of contrasting colors, which comprises applying flock containing naphthol to the fabric, subjecting the 120 fabric with said flock thereon to the action of a plurality of printing elements at predetermined areas on the fabric, and supplying to the printing surface of each of the printing elements a different chemical to react with the naphthol in 125 the flock to impart different colors to the flocks contacted by the respective elements at said areas.

4. The process of producing a flocked fabric comprising forming on the fabric with chemically treated flock a plurality of flocks, contacting 130 the fabric and flocks thereon with a plurality of surfaces of predetermined form, and supplying to said surfaces chemicals which will react with the chemical in the flock to impart to the flocks contacted by the different surfaces contrasting 135 colors.

OSCAR HERBERT FORSDALE. 

